Wedding Reception Activities

During our wedding reception, we are going to have several activities--croquet and bocce ball outside on the lawn. We are also going to have a video guest book inside.

Recently, we thought about doing an auction/ raffle as well. But I've been reading up on it online and the general consenus seems to be that it would be tacky. Our idea was to sell raffle tickets that to benefit a charity. Then having a selection of items that people can try to win that have significance to us: so, for example, our guide book from Hawaii with book marks of what we did and funny stories from our trip, the box from the bottle of champagne that honey gave me that I saved for almost a year (it even moved with me) before we drank it the night we got engaged and a bottle of champange, a framed engagement photo of us. Each will have a jar where people can put their raffle tickets for a chance to win the item. The idea is to have something inexpensive, but symbolic, along with a little story about us. Hence, it would more about getting people involved in a fun way to read about our relationship, then about making money or winning a cool prize.

Tacky? Or creative and fun?

This should be good for a laugh

Or maybe I'm the only one who finds it funny. The fiance started a wiki for us (using PBwiki) to organize our world travel plans and ideas. We also started using it to organize our wedding to do list (does this make us REALLY BIG nerds?). It has worked really well to divide wedding task responsibility and maintain communication over the distance. Plus we see what the other has done and it keeps us motivated. So, I sent my sweetie an e-mail with some of the thoughts in my post yesterday. For some reason, despite reading this sentiment again and again, it finally sunk in: we need to stop obsessing about this being our "wedding." We just needed to let that go and plan a party--except with a lot more guests and a big poofy white dress (okay, maybe not big and poofy). This thought was like an epiphany to me. I have been trying to figure out how to do "weddingy" stuff, but in our own unique way. Whatever that means!! It is so much easier to just drop the pressure, stress, and associations that come when you use the word "wedding" (even when you are just talking to yourself). Anyway, the fiance was totally on board with this and even added a "mission statement" to our wiki page with our wedding to do list. He made up this slogan for us: "Ask yourself WWWRND ("What Would We Really Normally Do?")." And that folks, I think is good for a laugh! (Or maybe you are just laughing because we use a wiki to track our wedding to do list).

Sweet Snacks

My wedding is less than five months away. Eek!! My to do list is huge! I am planning to head to Chicago over Memorial Day weekend and stay through Wednesday to get some wedding stuff done. We have schedule our tasting and will, hopefully, pick out a bakery to order our desserts from. Our plan is to NOT have a giant wedding cake, but a variety of cakes and other sweets. At one time I thought that I could make these (along with some assistance from family and friends) and while I haven't ruled that option out yet, I feel like there will be enough things to do as the wedding approaches. Especially because, ahem, I don't even have a dress yet!

* Photo from Alliance Bakery

Seriously!?

photo by darwin bell via mint

I definitely want paper lanterns for our reception--hanging from the porch and maybe also from the trees; probably in white maybe in pale green. So, when I saw that Luna Bazaar is offering Mint readers 20% off, I figured I should head over there and complete my lantern purchase. I mean, I am desperate for things I can actually GET DONE. But then I realized that I had no idea what size or type I needed. And because I live oh 500 miles from my reception location, I can't just pop over and check it out and measure the space between the columns or stare at the trees and figure out whether I want lanterns to hang from the trees and, if so, how many. Do I want simple ("no frills") ones or fancier ones? What's the difference? Do I want plain white or a mix of white and green? Or white, green, and blue? Seriously!? Is it really this hard to pick out lanterns? One more thing not checked off the list. (But, hey, at least I know where I'm ordering them from--that's progress, right?)

P.S. Are you using paper lanterns? What size? What type? Does it matter?

Reception Venue

Image from here

Our reception venue is Historic Pleasant Home (also known as the John Farson House) is located in Oak Park Illinois. We were deperate to avoid a traditional ballroom and really liked that this location has beautiful outdoor space--it is located adjacent to a park. This was also the perfect space for several other reasons:

* It was also more affordable than most other venues that we considered.

* It was available! (We only had eleven months to plan our wedding, so availability was a major factor for us.)

* It's about a seven-minute drive from our Church.

* It's within walking distance of a reasonably priced hotel, which means that we can save money on transporting guests to the reception location and that our guests aren't required to pay a lot on a hotel room to attend our wedding.

* There is a CTA ("L") and Metra stop within a block of the hotel, so guests can easily head downtown to explore Chicago in about twenty minutes. (And they can take public transportation from the airport, saving on car rental.)

* There are shops and restaurants located nearby.

The only drawback of the space is that, not being a traditional ballroom, there isn't one localized place for gathering. We will have to get creative. If the weather is nice, we are hoping to take advantage of the outdoor space. So, that's our venue. It seems like such a perfect choice now, but it still took many weeks (or was it months?) for us to finalize our decision. And I think my mother is still convinced that it would be better, cheaper, and easier if we had just picked a ballroom ;) Oh well, you can't please everyone. So, I suppose if we can't find a caterer we can always make it a picnic reception at the last minute. Always, like to have a back-up plan.

Reception Decoration Ideas

Some pretty pictures I have been collecting for wedding reception inspiration. Unfortunately, I don't have the source for many of these (if you know it, let me know so that I can add it).

Photo by Max Wangner

via We Met in a Bar via Lucky Me

Hmmm... to DIY or purchase?

I love this chalkboard that I found on Etsy. I was thinking about doing this myself. Although I haven't found an awesome old frame to use. And this one is green, which matches my wedding colors. Hmm... I'll have to think about it.